Safety Improvements Continue to Progress

The City of Carlsbad advanced several key efforts this week to help address the local traffic safety emergency, which was originally proclaimed in August following a dramatic increase in collisions involving bikes and e-bikes. The City Council has voted to extend the emergency another 60 days, so continued progress can be made on the three main areas of focus: education, engineering and enforcement.

Quick facts:

• On Tuesday, Dec. 6, the City Council voted to extend the local traffic safety emergency after they received an update on the city’s recent efforts.

• By law, the City Council must review a local emergency proclamation at least every 60 days and take action either to extend it or end it.

• Cities can proclaim a local emergency when “conditions of extreme peril threaten public safety.” The emergency proclamation allows cities to respond more quickly by freeing up resources and streamlining certain processes.

City staff recently updated City Council on what’s been accomplished in the first 100 days of the emergency proclamation. Click to read this report to see the progress so far.

In September, the City Council approved more than a dozen new initiatives in response to the traffic safety emergency, including projects to repave and restripe several streets throughout the city, including these major east-west corridors:

· Carlsbad Village Drive

· Tamarack Avenue

· Cannon Road

· Poinsettia Lane

· La Costa Avenue

In December, the city’s Traffic & Mobility Commission reviewed and provided comments on the striping plans for the first phase of this effort. You can see the plans in the commission staff report.